Well, another one is over! The curtain finally came down our most recent musical, Singin' in The Rain. We had a terrific week playing to appreciative audiences, and the feedback we've received has been fantastic . This production was in the capable hands of the same team who masterminded our very successful My Fair Lady last year. (Director Chrissie Robertson, Musical Director, Geoff Davidson and Choreographer, Carole Beatty).  Adapted from the 1952 movie of the same name, starring of course Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor, the show includes such classics as Make 'Em Laugh, You AreMy Lucky Star, Good Morning and of course the title number made famous by Gene Kelly and more recently Morecambe and Wise! And we really were "singin' in the rain" as the Cromer stage featured the famous rain sequence. The choice of show proved to be a popular one with our audiences and having never performed it before, 2010 is shaping up to be another exciting and hopefully successful year.

This is what the paper said: (Eastern Daily Press 31st May 2010 www.edp24.co.uk)

Outside bank holiday trippers were dodging the showers. Inside this talented am-dram group were singing and dancing in the rain.      This ambitious show included the famous Gene Kelly scene with the star splashing around in a downpour and puddles thanks to a piece of plumbing costing thousands of pounds for a brief but signature moment.

But the stunning part about this production by the Cromer and Sheringham Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society is how a cast of amateurs of differing abilities, ages and sizes have been glued together into a spectacular, slick and entertaining show.

There are stars on the stage, headed by the sweet-voiced and fleet-of-foot Katie Woodhouse playing Kathy Seldon the small time jobbing actress who provides the voice for silent movie siren Lina Lamont when the advent of the talkies exposesher fingernails-down-the-blackboard vocal cords. Sinead Merron is superb in that raucous role, and her What is Wrong with Me solo shows it is more than just a shallow cameo.

Max Murphy impresses with his all round vocals, acting and dancing as the cool leading man Don Lockwood. Lee Chapman is a perfect knockabout foil Cosmo Brown, bringing down the house, and nearly his trousers.

All credit to director Chrissie Robertson for scaling this mountain of an all-singing all-dancing show, which involved 14 scene changes in a cinematicfirst half. There were a few tuning and timing hiccups on opening night, but this breathless bit of Broadway, which runs until Saturday, June 5, is guaranteed to send the crowds away happy.

Richard Batson

Our chosen charity this year for our Gala opening night was the Norwich based Nelson's Journey. The charity supports children and young people under the age of 18 who live in Norfolk, who have experienced the death of a significant person in their life Eg: parent or sibling. We were delighted to donate £500 to them on our opening night and this is being generously boosted by our audiences by way of a bucket collection at each of our performances. That raised a further £1500. So a huge thank you to all those who gave so generously.For more information about the work they do, click on the picture on the right.     

At our AGM last November, our Chairman of 10 years, Peter Howell stood down and we thank him for his unstinting hard and work dedication to the Society over what has been a very successful decade for us. Longstanding member, Andrew Payne has taken over at the helm. Andrew has had a nearly 30 year association with the Society, for many of those on our Committee, and we know he can count on the support of all our members and VPs over the coming twelve months.

Check out photos from the show now on the photo gallery page.

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Our production in February, J.B. Priestley's When We Are Married, was a terrific success and proved to be a very popular choice with our audiences which meant we enjoyed good houses and a great reception at all our performances. We always knew how beautifully written it was and how funny but after many weeks of rehearsal, the laughs do tend to run a bit dry, so what a tonic on our opening night to hear such laughter from our first audience. This was repeated each and every night (and matinee particularly!). A huge thank you to our director, June Cooper, all the cast and crew and all those who came along and supported this production.  Photos can be seen on our gallery page. 

What the Press said.........

 If this play had been staged in 1908 when it is set instead of 1938 when it was first published, what might the reaction have been? Then,as now, we can view as comic the confusion and embarrassment that follows revelations that upstanding pillars of society have been "living in sin" for 25 years. But in northern England at the turn of the century, any couple in this position would have been considered social pariahs. Not funny!However, this is JB Priestley - doing what he does best - having a pop at Edwardian pomposity and piety. And it is funny. Very funny. Three couples are celebrating a joint silver wedding anniversary, when they discover that they have been united by an unlicensed clergyman and are, therefore, not legally married.How these "happy couples" try to resolve the problem before word of their misery spreads, as it inevitably does, is pure entertainment.Notable in this outstanding cast are Peter Howell and Madeline Hudson as pompous councillor Albert and Annie Parker. Albert is an old friend of Alderman Joseph Helliwell (Paul Markham) and his wife Maria (Amanda Howell). It is in the sitting room of the Helliwell's house that the old friends including Herbert and Clara Soppitt (Andrew Payne and Pauline Brown) meet up.Equally memorable are Thelma Torr as Mrs Northrop the cook and Ruby the maid, played by the irrepressible Laura Williamson.In the end, of ocurse, the big question is: do they really want to be married? Patrick Prekopp           

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My Fair Lady - May 2009 

What a fantastic week we had with  My  Fair  Lady at the Cromer  Pier  Pavilion Theatre.  Blessed with enthusiastic and appreciative audiences, it proved to be a hugely successful week.

Our opening gala night culminated in a £500 donation to Big C, our chosen charity for this year's show, which was generously boosted by donations from our first night audience as they left the theatre and a further collection at our final performance swelled the Big C coffers further, resulting in a final total of £1046. A very positive response was received from our audiences throughout the week with fantastic feedback from those who saw the show. Director Chrissie Robertson can feel justly proud of what was achieved, and Choreographer Carole Weeds is to be congratulated for her fantastic choreography. Not forgetting our fabulous orchestra led by MD Geoff Davidson. Behind the scenes, our small but vital band of scenery makers and painters did us proud with a fabulous set and a huge thank you to them, as without their talent and time, we wouldn't have a show. Then of course there's the lighting, costumes, programmes etc etc. It's a real team effort!